This was quite possibly the most wonderful Valentine's Day I've ever had. My sweetheart surprised me this morning with a gift, a beautiful 1930s art deco necklace I had my eye on at the vintage expo. Then he made me pink eggs and heart shaped bacon (well, those didn't quite turn out...but I so appreciate the effort and thought) and my favorite (GIGANTIC) cinnamon bun from Sweet Jill's Bakery in Long Beach.

At first we thought about doing a coastal drive up to Solvang, a picturesque Dutch town about 2 hours north of us, but decided to stay closer to home to avoid traffic (seriously, when you live in LA you literally plan your days around traffic)

We had such a fantastic day of exploring the aquarium (me going crazy over the jellyfish!) and then walking around Rainbow Harbor and enjoying lunch on a sun drenched patio. Afterwards we caught the shuttle to the Queen Mary and had a blast exploring all the different decks, reading up the history of the ship, and also took the Queen Mary Legends & Ghosts tour. I won't tell you too much about it...but I do recommend doing the tour if you're into silly stuff like that. AND you get to go into the boiler room of the ship which you can't access by yourself...it is genuinely haunting down there.

Most importantly, today's date day was just a reminder that sometimes work has to be paused and put off to the side and I get to enjoy the day with my love. It was wonderful to "get away" even if it was just in Long Beach. If you and your fella are looking for fun date ideas, I highly recommend getting the DUO ticket for the Aquarium and Queen Mary (you save about $20!) and it can easily all be done in one day.